UK Driving Test Booking Rules Tighten to Curb Bots and Resellers

Britain's Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency will tighten driving test booking rules to shorten waitlists of up to six months and block bots and firms from snapping up slots to resell at high prices to learner drivers.

Starting May 12, only the test candidate can book, change or swap their own driving test. No one else, including driving instructors, will be allowed to do so.

A BBC investigation in December revealed that some instructors received kickbacks of up to £250 a month for selling their official test-booking login details to touts. The touts used those details to book tests in bulk and resold them to learners via WhatsApp and Facebook for as much as £500.

Learners should consult their instructor to confirm readiness, then obtain the instructor's reference number to enter during booking. This ensures the instructor's availability.

Others can assist a candidate with booking and management, but only if the candidate is present. All confirmations must go to the candidate's email or phone. Candidates without email can get help setting up an account.

Those who exhausted their six changes under prior rules can make two more starting March 31.

Each adjustment counts as a change: altering the date or time, switching test centres or swapping slots with another learner. Multiple simultaneous changes, like date and centre, count as one.

Exceeding two changes requires cancelling the test and booking a new one.

From June 9, candidates can only shift bookings to one of the three nearest test centres.